Sunday, October 11, 2009

24 Hour Comics Day: relatively peaceful, actually

I went to 24 Hour Comics at MIT this year, hosted by the Student Art Association and MIT Anime club. The crowd was a mix of MIT students and local artists.

A 24 hour comic (for those who have not heard of it) is where one draws a 24 page comic in 24 hours. There is also a webcomic equivalent. All conception, planning and drawing must take place during the 24 hours. And since a couple of years ago, there has been an official 24 Hour Comic day. People can gather and draw comics together; it's a bit like pulling an all-nighter with friends during school, but it involves comics instead.

Unlike last year, this year was relatively peaceful and quiet. I spent the first part wandering around and brainstorming, and eventually settled down later. In the evening, we ate some really delicious and somewhat healthy pizza. It was interesting to watch people draw different stories and in different styles. For instance, near the end of the event, some people started drawing manga on slices of bread using a felt tip pen.

(I didn't take much notice at the time, as I was busy coloring my comic. But now I find myself wondering about this.)

Below: some shots of the event. No photos of the bread manga, sorry.

The title page of my comic, below. (Color was added this afternoon, after the event.)

In-progress shot...

I finished lettering and added washes of color to the main characters, before the Sunday 11 AM deadline.

I considered inking the dessen of my comic, like last year, but have decided to experiment with color instead. So I will be adding more color and fixing up some of the text. The layout and internal structures of the story will remain as created during the 24 hr event.

PS: Thank you for condolances from the last blog post. I am happy to report some good news -- I got my backpack back! It was found and delivered to the police station. Although things of actual monetary value (and one tin can of chocolate) were missing, everything else was left in the bag.

24 Hour Comics Day sounds TOTALLY AWESOME! :-P What a buzz to be "in the zone" with creativity all around, even the guys drawing manga on slices of bread using a felt tip pen!

Hey Aya, perhaps they read your story in the future and its a new form of time-travel medication replacing Vegemite??? What's that - chronology doesn't fit as the Comic Day happened first? No problems, there's Vegemite and then there's manga bread. Presto you're travelling through time. Perhaps...